FEC ANNOUNCES 1998 PARTY SPENDING LIMITS

AMOUNTS RANGE FROM $130,200 TO $3 MILLION-

WASHINGTON-The Federal Election Commission today announced the
1998 general election spending limits for the national and state
political party committees.

Amounts for the Senate campaigns will range from a low of $130,200
in Alaska, to a high of $3,035,874 in California.

These general election expenditures, known as "coordinated
expenditures", are limited under the election law. The national
committees of each political party have a set amount they may
spend on behalf of each U.S. House and Senate candidate. State
party committees may spend equal amounts or may transfer their
limits to the national committees, effectively doubling the national
committees' expenditure limits in those states or districts.

Coordinated expenditures are made in addition to direct contributions.
They are allowed only with regard to the general election, and
do not count as either contributions to candidates or as expenditures
made by candidates. Party committees may work with candidates'
campaigns to determine how the money should be spent, but the
campaigns do not receive the funds, the expenditures are reported
directly by the party committees on special schedules on their
financial disclosure reports.

The election law sets the limit for House races at $10,000, plus
costofliving adjustment (COLA). For 1998, that limit is $32,550,
except in states with only one congressional district, where the
limit will be $65,100.

The limits for Senate races are based on state voting age populations
(VAP), with a base limit for states with smaller populations.
The formula for determining a state's limit is:

Note to editors/correspondents: The spending limits are, at
this time, unofficial until updated VAP and COLA figures, provided
by the Labor Department and the Bureau of Census, have been certified.
However, the FEC does not expect the computations to change and
committees are being so notified.